Applications of BioMEMS in Cell-Related Research

Microelectromechanical systems have been used in biology and medicine for a number of years now. However, in the last decade, biological cell research has been an area where tremendous growth in their applications has been observed. The reason for this growth lies in the flourishing of the life sciences, which coincided with the maturation of the MEMS field. A large number of applications of BioMEMS in disciplines such as neuroscience, oncology, or (particularly) cell biology have been identified. In this talk, Prof. Tatic-Lucic will survey several different ways to exploit BioMEMS in cell biology, including cell manipulation, sorting, trapping and culturing. In addition, she will give examples of the work in this area done at Lehigh University. Specifically, she will address patterned growth of biological cells with application in cell-based sensors, and design, fabrication and characterization of BioMEMS devices for measuring mechanical compliance of cultured cells.